Glen Davis basks in Orlando Magic fans' adoration

And Magic fans are embracing him. They cheer him after he swishes mid-range jumpers, grabs offensive rebounds and dives to Amway Center's parquet floor.

After a regular season full of downs — the deaths of his grandmother and his biological father, being a bench player and a two-game suspension for an argument with Stan Van Gundy — Davis has hit his high point in the playoffs, which will continue this afternoon with Game 4 against the Indiana Pacers.

"I wasn't producing, and now I'm producing and the fans have accepted me," Davis said. "They see what type of player I am. They see my heart. They see the way I play the game, and they appreciate that. I'm just glad it's come at the right time, and now they know who I truly am and what I can truly do, and that feels good."

Davis started to turn a corner in mid-March after he played several strong games and seemed to accept that Ryan Anderson was starting at power forward instead of himself.

But Davis' momentum skyrocketed after the extent of Dwight Howard's back injury became clear. Davis, all 6 feet 9 of him, has started at center in Howard's place, and fans love to see him scrap against much taller opponents, such as the Pacers' 7-foot-2 skyscraper, Roy Hibbert.

This postseason, Davis is averaging 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, and he has defended effectively against Hibbert and against power forward David West. And he's done it all on a sprained right ankle.

"He's become a lot less me-oriented, a lot more team-oriented," Van Gundy said.

"I think that he probably is normally a team guy. But because of the thing coming here, and thinking he was going to start and then he didn't, he got really wrapped up into his own situation. And I think once he got out of that, and really got just focused on the team and how he could help us, he's a totally different guy."

As Davis has grown more comfortable with his role, he's also become more at ease off the court.

In recent weeks, before his ankle injury, he rode skateboards along downtown sidewalks. On Wednesday, after he scored 22 points in the Game 3 loss, he brought his adorable 1-year-old daughter, Amari, to a postgame press conference. He even has co-hosted a cooking show called "Baby Food."

Davis had been known as an emotional player during his time with the Boston Celtics, and he has displayed that emotion over and over again in this postseason. In Game 3, he hit a fadeaway jumper in the second quarter, and after the ball rattled through the hoop, he backpedaled and high-stepped at midcourt.

The fans loved that. It was one of the bright spots on a night when the Magic went down two games to one in the series.

"At the beginning of the year, it was tough," Davis said. "Everybody knows that I was getting booed at the beginning of the season because I didn't play well. And, now, I'm playing well. Everybody wants to clap and hurrah and hooray. And it feels good to know that the fans have accepted me."